Unfortunately, the committee voted to raise this bill once again and move it closer to becoming law. The open carry bill was added to a long list of other bills which prevent it from being voted on individually. The vote passed by a voice vote, some committee members commented that their vote to raise isn’t necessarily their vote in support of any one bill on the agenda. Rep. Rob Sampson commented that the bill is unconstitutional on its face and should not even be on the agenda.

Now, that the committee voted to raise H.B.6200, the Legislative Commissioners’ Office (LCO) will draft the bill into the legal language. Once this happens we will prepare for the public hearing and public testimony stage of the process. A public hearing can happen anytime between now and the middle of March. No date has been set yet.

CCDL will continue to monitor this and keep our members updated on a public hearing date.

TIP: Start to prepare your written testimony for the hearing now and save it. Feel free to use some of the sample letters provided in last night’s Action Alert. You can also sign up through the Connecticut General Assembly website to track H.B.6200 yourself.

The following is a guest post by CCDL’s Legislative Coordinator, Ray Bevis.
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The 2016 Connecticut General Assembly adjourned late Wednesday night. This session CCDL tracked 11 firearm-related bills. Of those 11 bills, three passed and are awaiting the governor’s signature before officially becoming law. We would like to thank all the members who took the time to contact legislators and especially the members who attended the public hearings this year. This is an imperative part of preserving our Second Amendment rights here in Connecticut.

Shortens the deadline by which a person must transfer, deliver, or surrender his or her firearms, ammunition and permits, if they becomes ineligible to possess them as a result of becoming subject to a civil restraining order, civil protection order, criminal protective order, or foreign order of protection involving force, to 24 hours. It extends these requirements to ex parte orders (i.e., those issued without a prior hearing).

Gives people who must surrender their firearms, ammunition and permits the option of surrendering them to a municipal police department on the DESPP commissioner’s behalf, instead of just to the DESPP commissioner. It requires the police department, as is currently the case for the DESPP commissioner, to exercise due care when receiving and holding the firearms.

The police must destroy any firearms or ammunition that have not been transferred back by the end of one year.

Currently, a person subject to an order of protection who violates the firearms and ammunition transfer, delivery, or surrender requirement is guilty of criminal possession of a firearm or ammunition as applicable. The bill extends these penalties to people who commit such violations while subject to an ex parte order. By law, criminal possession of a firearm or ammunition is a class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison with a two-year mandatory minimum.

Requires the DESPP commissioner, in conjunction with the chief state’s attorney and the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, to develop a protocol to ensure that people who become ineligible to possess firearms transfer, deliver, or surrender them as appropriate. The bill requires the commissioner to update the protocol to appropriately apply to the bill’s provisions.

The DESPP commissioner must not issue a gun permit, handgun eligibility certificate, or long gun eligibility certificate to anyone subject to an ex parte order. By law, the commissioner may revoke a permit or certificate for any event that would have disqualified the holder from being issued such a credential.

Under the bill, DESPP must reinstate a gun or ammunition credential it revoked based on an ex parte order, if the order expires and the respondent, who is not otherwise disqualified, notifies DESPP and it verifies the expiration.

This bill lowers, from .10% to .08%, the blood alcohol content (BAC) level that triggers a presumptive violation of the law’s prohibition on carrying a loaded firearm while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

This bill codifies case-law by exempting, from the existing ban on carrying certain weapons in a vehicle, someone having a dirk knife or police baton in a vehicle while lawfully moving his or her household goods or effects from one place to another or from one residence to another. (State v. Deciccio)

What should you do now?
If your legislator voted to protect your rights, send them a “Thank You” note or email. Offer to volunteer on their campaign.

If your legislator voted against your rights, send them a cordial note or email stating they will not have your vote in November and you will make sure to ask everyone you know in their district NOT to vote for them.

The best way to protect our rights is to get the right people elected.

Note: since the legislature failed to pass a budget this session (the one bill they were required to pass), a special session will be called. The session is supposed to only address the budget, but it’s not uncommon for legislators to try and slip in pet bills that failed to pass during the regular session. CCDL will continue to follow the goings-on in Hartford, and will will notify our membership of any anti-gun wording in the budget.

We hope ALL of you will be attending or at least submitting written testimony for Monday’s public hearing. The antigun groups are mobilizing their members, it is vitally important we make our voices heard!
CCDL Legislative Coordinator Ray Bevis has put together the following resources to help you out. If you have any questions, you may email Ray at legislative@ccdl.us

Try not using the word victim, instead try using applicant or applicant of the ex parte restraining order.

Try referring to the alleged attacker as the respondent or subject.

Taking away a person’s natural right of protection without a hearing, without a criminal charges, without a police report, without due process.

This is just a gun grabbing law.

For an ex parte application, a judge cannot determine a fair preponderance of the evidence on the basis of one biased affidavit.

Connecticut already has a seizure of firearm provision for persons posing a risk of injury to self or others under 29-38c – “Seizure of firearms of person posing risk of imminent personal injury to self or others”.

Connecticut already has a seizure of firearm provision for when a peace officer determines that a family violence crime has been committed under 46b-38b.

Many states, including Connecticut, already prohibit people with violent misdemeanor convictions from acquiring or possessing firearms or ammunition, regardless of the offender’s relationship to the victim.

Applicants of temporary restraining orders commonly apply for them days and sometimes weeks after the alleged incident happened and often without a police report filed.

Alleged domestic violence victims are not required to report to the police in order to obtain a restraining order.

Rights are striped without a chance to be heard and without a police report.

If a crime is serious enough to cause an individual to lose a fundamental constitutional right, then that crime should be serious enough for a police investigation.

Police are trained to administer the Lethality Risk Assessment, which is the evidence-based instrument that’s used to identify domestic violence victims who are at heightened risk of injury or worse.

In 2014, 45% of all ex parte temporary restraining orders were found not to be valid after the hearing.

In 2015, 37% of all ex parte temporary restraining orders were found not to be valid after the hearing.

Background Information

–Ex parte: /ˌɛks ˈpɑrtiː/ is a Latin legal term meaning “from (by or for) [the/a] party”. An ex parte decision is one decided by a judge without requiring all of the parties to the controversy to be present.

CCDL holds its monthly general membership meeting at 7:00pm on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at the Elks Lodge in Middletown, CT.

Our next meeting is Tuesday, February 9, 2016.

All CCDL members are welcome and encouraged to attend. We have a request from the property owners to please do not park on the grass when attending the meeting (I don’t think we have to worry about that this month!).

Merchandise
We sell CCDL merchandise at the meeting, buy it there and save on shipping.
We also sell limited edition items that are not available in our online store. For hunting season we have camo/blaze hats, $25 each.
We still have patches, pins, and magnets (perfect to put on your car, gun safe, or refrigerator). We also sell the car decals in assorted colors and sizes that you can’t get online.

Food Drive
CCDL collects canned goods/non-perishables at all our meetings to be donated to local charities. The holiday season is here, and the local food banks get stretched thin. Please bring non perishables to the meeting. If everyone that attends brought at least one canned good we would be helping to feed MANY!

Middletown Elks
44 Maynard St
Middletown, CT 06457
February 9, 2016 7:00pm-9:00pm
Please park in the event lot to the left of the building (looking at it from Maynard St) and enter the upstairs banquet hall at the front of the building. please do not park on the grass!!

CCDL holds its monthly general membership meeting at 7pm on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at the Elks Lodge in Middletown, CT. Our next meeting is Tuesday, June 9, 2015.
All CCDL members are welcome and encouraged to attend. We have a request from the property owners to please do not park on the grass when attending the meeting.

Meeting Agenda

The decision in the Federal Court Appeal that CCDL and other litigants are suing over (Shew v Malloy) should be here soon. We are days away from the typical time frame that an appellate court takes to reach a decision. We have a very special meeting for Tuesday, which will include a visit from Chris Conte. Chris is litigation counsel for NRA-ILA and has done a lot to help coordinate legal legwork associated with this case. Chris will talk about the lawsuit’s future and other aspects of Connecticut gun rights.
Connecticut Local Counsel Martha Dean will be in attendance and so will Tom King, the President of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association. NY is fighting the SAFE Act law which is similar to the law that we are fighting here in CT (PA 13-3/13-220).

A full post-legislative breakdown will be presented by CCDL Legislative Coordinator Ray Bevis. Ray will be providing statistics about membership involvement and effectiveness at the meeting. He has worked very hard this session along with Chris Lemos to bring Legislative information to our members in real-time.

Jonathan Hardy will talk about recent events with the BFPE and permit issues.

We will be talking about the upcoming CCDL Family Picnic as well as the Poker Run.
The CCDL Family Picnic date has been set for 9/19/2015 at Boothe Memorial Park in Stratford. A flyer for the event should be available soon.
The CCDL Poker Run is set for 9/26/2015. All proceeds go to support the lawsuit against the unconstitutional gun law (PA 13-3/13-220) that passed in 2013.
Mark your calendars!

Christian Ragosta. the NRA Grass Roots will be in the house to answer questions.

Merchandise
We sell CCDL merchandise at the meeting, buy it there and save on shipping.
We also sell limited edition items that are not available in our online store. Right now we have patches, pins, and magnets (perfect to put on your car, gun safe, or refrigerator). We also sell the car decals in assorted colors besides white.

Food Drive
CCDL collects canned goods/non-perishables at all our meetings to be donated to local charities. The holiday season may be over, but people still need to eat. Please bring non perishables to the meeting. If everyone that attends brought at least one canned good we would be helping to feed MANY!

Middletown Elks
44 Maynard St
Middletown, CT 06457
June 9, 2015 7:00pm-9:00pm
Please park in the event lot to the left of the building (looking at it from Maynard St) and enter the upstairs banquet hall at the front of the building. please do not park on the grass!!

Come Join CCDL on September 21, 2013 for a 2nd Amendment Poker Run!
All Proceeds go towards the Litigation Fund. For those that don’t know, a poker run is a driving event combined with the card game poker. It’s mostly done by motorcycle and classic car clubs, but while we certainly encourage you to bring your Harley or ’57 Chevy if you have one, it’s not required.

The run will begin at Woodbridge Firearms Trading Post located at 28 Selden St. in Woodbridge. Registration is from 9:30-10:30am and the cost will be $20 per rider or driver and $15 per passenger.
At Woodbridge Firearms you will be given directions to various locations.
At each location you will pick a playing card from a deck.
You can expect to drive about 60 miles total. The Poker Run will end up at King 33 Training Facility, 75 Aircraft Rd in Southington, where the people with the best poker hands will win prizes.

At King 33 there will be food as well as live music by the band “After Midnight”. Registered participants eat for free. Those not participating in the Poker Run can purchase food passes for $15.00 each.

This is also your last chance to buy tickets for our HUGE raffle, and we will be drawing the winners at King 33 in the afternoon. The Grand Prize for the raffle is a custom motorcycle with an airbrushed paint job of your choice on the tanks and dash from Explicit Airbrush in Southington. We have lots of additional prizes in the raffle including an ATI 12 gauge over/under shotgun, Charter Arms Chic Lady .38 Special Revolver, Ruger 10/22 takedown rifle and a Ruger LCP .380 Pistol.Winners must be legally eligible to take possession of prizes.

Remember, ALL profits go toward fighting for YOUR rights, so come join CCDL at this outstanding event with over 40 volunteers helping out!